Yeah that's something I said a while ago, they could do it something like:
Friday night: Origin 1
Wednesday night: Origin 2 (Same turnaround as playing Friday after playing Sunday)
Monday: Origin 3 (Again, same turnaround time as a Friday to Sunday)
Each coach selects a squad not a team, knowing full well that perhaps not all players will play every minute of every game.
For example, Corey Parker and Anthony Watmough have played plenty of origin in the past but didn't make their Game 1 teams. They've now played in game 2. Why couldn't they just have been included in the squad in the first place, and possibly even some players are rested in some games? I mean there's depth there anyway based on some selection decisions being contentious.
I like the idea of this as it's a bit more of a war rather than a series of battles. The games being close together just make it seem more epic.
Given there's currently 26 rounds but each team only plays 24 times, the season doesn't even need to be extended to accommodate this. All teams just get a bye on both origin weekends.
Now the only remaining issue is that for two weekends of the year there'll only be one game of League. I think we can accommodate this in other ways. During that two week period new things can come in. Maybe a 7's knock out comp that non-origin players play in. Maybe the NZ team can play a 'best of the rest' team. Also NYC origin, NSW Cup vs QLD Cup residents match (not origin, the origin concept makes no sense at that level), charity origin legends matches (retired players), womens origin. A big two week mid-season carnival.
Basically you have a half season (12 rounds) then this two week mid season carnival, then the second half of the season (12 rounds).
This is my ideal 'solution', but if that can't be done there's something we can do immediately.
Play origin on Monday nights.
It makes sense because the players in origin camp can't play for their respective teams the week before anyway. If they play on the Monday they can back up much easier. It's a very easy tweak to make that solves some of the disruption.
Origin people will claim it reduces bonding and training camp time for the origin squad but I don't really give a ****. The first two days are apparently piss ups anyway. Good tradition but not at the expense of each club having their best players have to back up possibly only 2 days after one of the biggest matches of their career.
